Fate Is Unpredictable
by MostTulip
Summary: It should have gone like all the others. The child would disappear without a trace and a clone would soon replace them. But something went wrong. Someone screwed up. The operation should have gone smoothly. It was anything but. Now questions are being raised, accusations made. Who was responsible for this mess? And can ONI truly fix it before someone learns the truth?


**The Day It All Began**

The day had been like any other. Alex had gone off to school, excited as always to see her teachers and friends. Her blond hair had been tied in a braid, reaching to the small of her back. Jesse had meant to cut it over the weekend, but as always, work had gotten in the way and she had to change her plans last minute. Alex's bag had been loaded down with her schoolwork and the books and odd things she liked to keep with her. _"For fun," _she would always say.

Maybe it had been Jesse's fault. She'd been doing so much work, she hadn't noticed that Alex's school had ended until it was nearly five o'clock. When she realized this, her worry had overcome her and she had driven as fast as she could in Phoenix's crowded streets to get to the school. Alex wasn't there when she pulled up.

She had gone immediately to the teacher, asking where it was that Alex had gone. The teacher had said that Alex had been walking home with her friend, little Annie. Jesse thanked her and barely managed to get herself inside before she was driving like a maniac to Annie's house. She'd been there half a hundred times. Alex and Annie were like twins, with their matching blond hair and love for books (though Alex was much more in love with them than Annie could ever be). She was almost there when something made her stop, made her step out of the car and run to the small mass lying on the sidewalk. Annie.

There was a gash on her forehead and the blood pooled around the ground suggested that she had been there for awhile. Jesse was ashamed later to admit that the only reason she had really stopped was not because Annie was injured but because she was so worried about Alex. Where was Alex?

Placing the little body into the backseat, she rushed to the hospital, calling Annie's parents and alerting them to the fact that their daughter had been hurt and that Alex was missing. It worried Jesse greatly. This was Phoenix. It was a huge city. No one would care about another missing child. No one but the person responsible for them.

After nearly an hour of waiting and listening to Annie's mother and father crying over their little girl, the doctor came out and told them that she would be okay. But that was the least important thing on Jesse's mind. Annie had been found, but what about Alex?

A police officer had come to investigate what had happened. Jesse was hysterical.

* * *

_"She-she's missing. Please, you-you have to f-find her-"_

_"Who? Who's missing?" His hands were strong on her shoulders, fingers digging into her skin._

_"You have to find her," she sobbed out. That was all she could say. "You have to find her, you have to find her. Find her, find her, find her, find her."_

* * *

Eventually, they had to sedate her to calm her down. When she woke up, they - the police officer and the doctors - said that she had been there for a day. The police officer, Sergeant Ryan Parker, reassured her that they were searching for Alex, that they would find her. She didn't need to hear the false hope in his voice, to see it in his eyes, to know that it was almost surely a lost cause. Her sister was gone without a trace. The only one who could tell them what had happened was Annie, and she was in a coma.

Jesse had let her head fall into her hands. Her sobs shook her entire body. Why was this happening to them? Hadn't enough pain and suffering occurred? Why did the one thing that mattered most to her have to be taken?

Sergeant Parker stayed with her, trying his best to comfort her. At one point, her began to awkwardly rub her back in a soothing way, murmuring empty promises. _"We'll find her, we'll get her back. Don't worry. We'll get her back to you." _One could only hear the same thing over and over again before they started believing it. She found herself hoping that he was right, waiting for someone to walk up to them and say that Alex had been found.

It was nearly five hours after she woke up from her sedation that her prayers were answered. Or so she thought.

Another police officer approached them. He said that her sister had been found, that she was in a room in the hospital being checked for injury. Jesse was up and running before he got the chance to finish, Parker right behind her. Normally, she would have told Parker to fuck off. Normally, she would be too busy with her job and taking care of Alex to care about men. Normally, Alex would be safe and sound and would not have been taken.

Just before she reached the room that Alex was located in, she had an odd thought. She hadn't called in late for work. Her boss was going to be pissed! Then she remembered that it was work that had kept her from picking up Alex and bringing her home safe. Her boss could go screw himself for all she cared. Right now, her main concern was Alex.

Parker must have decided to give her some space because as she turned to check for security or anyone trying to stop her, Parker was gone. She didn't give it much thought, just ran to the room. When she entered, Alex was sitting on the bed. Her waist was covered with a blanket and she was wearing the hospital clothes the doctors required patients to wear. Something was wrong though. Something was very, very wrong.

She walked in and Alex stared at her for a few seconds, as if trying to remember her. When she finally recognized her, her eyes didn't hold the same mischief and joy that they usually did when she was with Jesse. Instead they held fear and uncertainty. Jesse was willing to put it off as a symptom that comes with being kidnapped, until she noticed something utterly insignificant to any other but huge to her.

Every morning for the past four years (since she could do it herself), Alex braided her hair. She would split it into three parts. She would start with the right strand crossing the middle, and continue from there until her braid was finished. It shouldn't have been important, really, it shouldn't have. But Jesse could only feel a sense of horror when she saw that the braid began with the left strand crossing the middle.

It was not enough to suspect anything. Jesse was smart, she knew that she couldn't build an entire theory off of a braid. For four years Alex had braided right over middle. For the past three and a half-years she had done it without ever giving it a thought. It had become an instinct. Even when Alex would give it thought, it was always right over middle. So why was it now left over middle?

"Alex," she had whispered, kneeling by Alex's bed. She had turned her head, confusion crossing her face as she watched Jesse. Jesse's throat tightened at Alex's expression. "Alex, its me. Its Jesse."

She reached her hand over to Alex's. As soon as her flesh made contact, Alex pulled her hand away, cradling it as if she had been burned.

"My name is . . . Alexandra." Her voice was so soft, Jesse barely heard it.

"Yes. But everyone calls you Alex. Remember? You remember, right?" She tried to hide the rising panic in her voice.

Alex nodded. "Yes, yes I remember." She lacked her normal confidence.

"Good. You're safe now. Safe," she repeated, pulling her little sister in for a hug. Jesse crushed her against her chest, desperate for the reassureance that Alex was here. They'd lost Mom, and Dad, and even Connor. No way in hell would she lose Alex.

"I'm safe. With you. Jesse. Sister." Jesse ignored the fear she had felt moments before. Everything was fine now. Alex was back. Annie was going to live. Life would go back to the way things were. It would work out.

Of course, that was when things began to go absolutely wrong.


End file.
